Using OVMF for VMs

[kokoticek]

So I tried for the first time in life to install Proxmox (latest 5.3) finally by using UEFI in the physical server; it seemingly did work with UEFI on, albeit not with secure boot (guess it's not Proxmox's policy to pay Micro$$oft for a signed shim file...)

But now I'm wondering if it's now safe enough to use OVMF over SeaBIOS for all VMs I install (until now I usually have Centos/Debian servers and one or another Windows 10 VM).

Is using OVMF now safe enough even for production environments?
Or why is SeaBIOS still the default?

Thanks.

 

[wolfgang]

Hi,

OVMF is the base UEFI implementation and the most Hardware manufacturer use it as the base of there custom UEFI.
So yes it is safe to use.

 

[kokoticek]

Thanks very much.

Then finally,
a) docs say one needs an "efi disk" in order tot use OVMF. If installing a brand new VM from scratch, either Linux or Windows, do I still need to add that disk beforehand? Can't OS installer do that?
b) any reason SeaBIOS is still the default?

 

[fireon]

You have to add the disk before you installing the OS. And yes SeaBIOS is the default, because of some Bugs with OVMF. On is: After enabling Memory Hotplug, the vm can't start anymore.

 

[kokoticek]

@wolfgang:
And with this bug and other ones is "safe" to use OVMF in general?

 

[wolfgang]

On is: After enabling Memory Hotplug,

This is a hardware specific feature, so there is no general statement about this.

And with this bug and other ones is "safe" to use OVMF in general?

As far I know there are no breaking bugs open.

 

[fireon]

https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1185
I forgot, change the machine type helps to solve this. But only if you don't work with virtual GPU.